.
On the Epstein Files Debacle
—a villanelle
Where are those awful Epstein files?
It doesn’t matter left or right!
Who are those sordid pedophiles?
We need a cleanup on this aisle,
From desk to void, they’ve taken flight,
Where are those awful Epstein files?
They think they’re fooling us with wiles;
They must not think we are that bright!
Who are those sordid pedophiles?
Why aren’t those guilty facing trials?
If they’re released, who’ll feel a fright?
Where are those awful Epstein files?
Who else was on that woeful isle?
This darkness, let’s illume with light:
Who are those sordid pedophiles?
We’ve all been waiting quite a while,
Why isn’t that client list in sight?
Where are those awful Epstein files?!
Who are those sordid pedophiles?!
.
.
Drilon Bajrami is a nascent poet who lives in the United Kingdom and is currently finishing up a dystopian novel he has been working on for a few years.
This is a gritty take on the continuing Epstein escapade. With the release of the file, who knows now how much it has been doctored, deleted, or amplified.
Your poem is apt and appropriate.
Thank you, Roy, and hopefully one day we’ll know the whole truth on the matter.
Good metre and structure. However I found it a bit too literal. Yes poetry should have intention, but this feels awfully specific. I would recommend more subtlety and metaphor. Leave something to the imagination.
Thank you for your comment, Christian. While I do agree with your comment, I think for this subject matter that directness is more appropriate than subtlety.
When you take the subject of “Beauty”, like what many of the poems on the SCP are based on, a subtle poem full of metaphors and allergorical allusions raises it to a higher level — that’s why we love the greats who do that better than anyone else — but for this topic, I thought my approach was more apt. Though, I can see where you’re coming from.
It’s true that versified narrative (or argument, or philosophical discourse) usually has to stay away from excess ornamentation so as not to distract from its main points. One can make use of simile, but the more difficult thing called metaphor won’t be appropriate.
Clarity is beauty with a subject like this, and your villanelle, Drilon, is a model of it. The repetitions characteristic of the form are fine reminders that these matters have been in the hands of bureaucrats, left and right, for a long time. There’s been much opportunity to alter or destroy. This is why I think we will not learn the whole truth. But since we know witnesses sworn to secrecy have seen much more than we, some information may come out eventually. It may not be the client list, if there was one, but I do admire the metrical hiccough in your line, “Why isn’t that client list in sight?”